Reviews: "If I Should Speak"
Professor K. Bryant, Howard University
“…a refreshing exploration of the unavoidable interaction between Muslims and Christians. The novel belongs to…a genre worthy of scholarly study.”

Dr. Robert D. Crane, former advisor to President Nixon
"I could not put it down…I was fascinated not only by the plot of the novel, but especially by the brilliance of the writing itself. As a life-long, professional writer and editor, I can say that I have never encountered Umm Zakiyyah's equal in portraying the nuances of encounters between persons at all levels from the most superficial to the most profound. She is a clear example of a person who has natural talent. A person can be trained to write well, but no amount of training can bring a person without superb, natural talent to captivate the reader as she does and exert a permanent intellectual and emotional impact.

The American Muslim Magazine
by Gena Chung

"The vicissitudes of life are unpredictable. Uncontrollable circumstances oftentimes lead people into undesirable situations. In If I Should Speak, a novel by Umm Zakiyyah, we become witnesses to a cornerstone event in the central character’s life that catapults her into a tumult of mental and spiritual conflicts. After a violent altercation with her roommate, Tamika, a sophomore in college, is forced to move out of her dormitory room after being found guilty of physical assault. Already distressed by the assault charge and being forced to live with complete strangers, Tamika, who is a devout Christian and has little tolerance for Islam, discovers that both of her new roommates are Muslim.

Immediately, Tamika senses the large dichotomy in how Islam is manifest in these women’s lives. Durrah, whom Tamika comes to admire and befriend, is an attractive model and singer who blends well into conventional Western society, while Aminah is an abstemious, modestly dressed Muslim woman whose actions are construed as puritanical and abrasive. Tamika’s forced habitation with the Muslims exacerbates already existing tensions between the women and exposes an unwitting Tamika to a religion that challenges the beliefs that were imbibed in her since childhood. As Tamika comes to accept her less than perfect living arrangement, the three women are unaware that thenceforward, their lives will be altered forever.

Umm Zakiyyah’s deft representation of reality in this fictitious novel is astounding. She intricately but subtly weaves the lives of these three women into one powerful story, a feat that any skilled writer would find difficult. Throughout the novel, the author presents intimate portraits of each woman, equipping us with the tools necessary to puzzle together the personal and spiritual complexities of the women who must live together and witness trying and intricate periods of each other’s lives. Their unique histories explain their peculiarities, and the story artfully dispels the popular notions that would portray Tamika as the Christian party girl whose spiritualism is only a façade, Durrah as the capricious Muslim who utilizes college freedom to abandon Islam, and Aminah as a self-righteous, radical extremist who dedicates her life to making others miserable. Instead, we are drawn into each of their struggles, joys, and ambitions, and find that they are more alike than they appear and that each of their lives represent a piece of our own."